


A Heavy Burden

by FlorarenaKitasatina



Category: Pokemon, Pokemon Insurgence (fan game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Grimdark, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, from bad to worse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2018-06-02 18:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6577258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorarenaKitasatina/pseuds/FlorarenaKitasatina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiding away for some time, a young woman infected with a contagious strain whose full nature is still unknown blunders into a cavern. A man named Taen finds her, and offers her some help with ridding herself of the viral mutagen.</p><p>There's just one little problem to hinder that. Actually, several: she's pregnant, and prone to fits of rage. And the strain is spread through physical contact. May Arceus have mercy on her soul, and mercy upon those who wish to help her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Discovery

"He... he w-won't... find me h-here," a feminine, distorted voice rasped in a low, pained whisper. Sharp, hollow, agonized breaths echoed about in a dark cavern, accompanied by a slight shuffling and pitter-patter of water that dropped from the ceiling. A second later, a dull thud sounded, as sudden as a boom of thunder yet as quiet as a pin dropping onto a carpet floor.

A thick silence blanketed the bleak area, and not even the owner of the pained exhales could hope to break it. For what felt like an eternity, this tranquility lingered, only to be shattered as what sounded like hooves and feet began pattering about in the blackness. A soft golden glow came moments later, unveiling a large pink creature with an egg pouch and small protrusions resembling dreadlocks, and another one like a miniature black zebra with white and glowing stripes and a bolt pattern in its equally-illuminating mane.

"Blitzle, Blit Blit!" the small zebra-creature cried. It took a step forward, only to stiffen as a short gasp of alarm reached its ears before blue and red blurs shot out of the darkness, whipping at the ground in front of it and causing it to back off.

"Stay... stay away, little Blitzle. I... I don't want to... b-be disturbed," the unseen owner of the feminine voice rasped as the blurs retracted as fast as they had come. "J-just leave me a-alone."

"Chansey, Chan Chan!" the pink creature exclaimed, taking a step forward on small feet as it reached for the egg pouch with stubby arms. It stilled as two thick, rectangular tentacles, red and blue in color, shot out of the darkness and stopped just inches from its face.

"I... I don't w-want an e-egg, thank you," the voice sighed. "Go... go away, Chansey. P-please."

The Blitzle stepped forward, its mane and stripes glowing brighter. Its eyes widened and its mouth dropped open at what it saw; a naked woman leaning against a rock wall, one arm morphed into the red and blue tentacles that pointed accusingly at the Chansey. She had messy, light green hair and dulled azure eyes, a violet stripe running down the bridge of her nose, and a purple gemstone-looking object settled between her breasts. Her legs from the knees down were red and ended in stubs, with the kneecaps themselves being a distinct blue in color. Her ribs jutted out stubbornly, and her hips and shoulders were especially prominent, while her non-tentacle arm faced a similar predicament regarding its elbow. To top this all off, she was heavily pregnant and had many bruises adorning her body.

"Stay... back. I-I'm warning you," she threatened before grunting in pain, retracting her tentacles so they could rest feebly at her side. "Just... leave me. Leave me... so I c-can die," she pleaded, eyes screwing shut as pain flared in her battered body.

"Chan," the Chansey snapped, shaking its ovoid body with a disapproving frown on its face. It approached the odd woman and pulled the egg from its pouch, stopping and holding it inches from her form.

The woman slumped her shoulders in defeat, head drooping and hair obscuring her face from the two creatures who decided to pester her. Her form heaved, and she made to stand on her misshapen legs, using her hand and tentacles to steady herself against the rock wall. The gem on her chest started glowing faintly, only to cease a moment later. She slumped again, sliding against the bumpy surface until her buttocks connected with the stone floor, and her hand moved to rest on her swollen stomach.

"Chansey?" the Chansey murmured, tilting its body quizzically. It flinched as the woman turned to it, her eyes flickering with pain, sadness, and uncertainty.

Another set of footsteps echoed in the darkness, and into the light stepped a blue-haired man with white garments and balls attached to his pants legs. He stared at the woman with an impassive gaze, unflinching as she made to stand once more, directing all of her attention to him with a wicked glare. He said nothing as the chest-gem began glowing again, this time almost burning with an amethyst light. "What... what business do you have with me, Taen?" she hissed, her voice distorting into an otherworldly echo as she spoke.

"I wish to rid you of your affliction, Nora," Taen replied in a smooth voice with a simple nod. "Reukra has been working on an antidote for the Pokerus-Deoxys strain, and as he has yet to locate Malde and Damian—"

"Don't say that name!" Nora shrieked, involuntarily causing the Chansey and Blitzle to take a few paces back. Her tentacles began writhing vehemently, as if they had a will of their own, on the verge of lashing out once more. She stilled as the man rose one hand.

"I understand, fully, your most peculiar predicament. I would very much appreciate it if you didn't shout, lest _he_ happens to hears you," Taen warned, earning a gasp of alarm from Nora. "As I was saying, since Malde and... the other one who's been afflicted have yet to be found, Reukra sent me after you once Nicole told me that you've been... infected," he explained.

Nora's eyes widened. "N-Nicole...?" she murmured, the gem ceasing its glow as the word left her lips.

"Yes. She caught word from Orion, who... had the displeasure of witnessing your infection while he was riding upon the Pokemon Reshiram's back," Taen stated, still maintaining his impassive gaze. He dropped his hand as the woman collapsed onto her knees, her breathing hitching and becoming riddled with short-lived pants. He added, "However, I had to catch this Blitzle and Chansey, as I was under the assumption you had been weakened. It would seem that my assumption has proved more than correct, as it were."

"Chansey," the Chansey murmured, approaching the woman and once more offering her the egg. Nora weakly looked at the offered shelled treat, tears prickling in her eyes as she sat there staring at it.

"I... I..." Nora stopped and doubled over, her hand shooting to rest on the stone floor as her body heaved. She coughed for a moment or so before expelling the contents of her stomach then and there, once more causing the Chansey to stumble back. The liquid formed a puddle in front of her, clear with traces of blood, which only caused Taen to look at her with the slightest bits of worry flickering in his eyes.

"Have you found her—" another voice called out as a brown-haired woman with a black hat and yellow dress bustled into the light. She ceased speaking and paled upon seeing Nora. "Oh my Arceus... what happened to her?"

"Quite a lot," Taen replied curtly. He turned to the new arrival. "She can't even stand, Harmony. Do you still have your Gardevoir with you?"

"Y-yes," Harmony replied, taking off her hat and producing a red and white ball from within. She watched the vomiting woman intently, eyes flickering with sadness as she waited for Nora to cease emptying her stomach onto the floor. She clicked a button on the ball, causing it to open and release a red-tinted energy that morphed into a green-haired Pokemon sporting protrusions that made it look as though it wore a white dress and a striped blue scarf around its neck.

Nora, upon finishing the act of losing what was left of her stomach, groaned weakly and looked up at the new arrivals. "H-Harmony?" she croaked.

"Yes, Nora, it's me," Harmony confirmed, nodding fervently. Her expression turned to one of sorrow as the misshapen woman inexplicably began sporadically twitching in place, tentacles writhing and lashing violently. Both she and Taen stepped back as the appendages shot at them like crimson and azure whips, as did the Pokemon they had with them.

"Stay... stay away! I don't... want to spread this curse to you two!" Nora cried, her voice distorting again, the gem in her chest starting to glow brilliantly with a bright violet light.

"She's going out of control... I was hoping this wouldn't happen. Harmony, command your Gardevoir to do something! We have to stop Nora here and now!" Taen barked, turning to the woman with anger and worry flickering in his eyes.

"But wouldn't that mean hurting her? I can't do that to her, she's already wounded and pregnant!" Harmony protested, looking at Taen with widening eyes that betrayed sparks of horror within.

"Unfortunately, yes! Just do something before she hurts us or herself; would you rather she suffered more in solitude, potentially spreading the strain in the process?!" Taen snapped, eyes narrowing low.

Harmony nodded, and her head dropped. Shoulders sagging as Nora began screeching loudly in pain and in an attempt to rein herself in, she murmured, "Gardevoir, use Moonblast on Nora." The Gardevoir nodded and rose a slender green arm high into the air, channeling pink energy from all around that formed into a ball at the end of the limb. It watched Nora, who made to back away whilst still twitching, with a seemingly-impassive look. It too took on a sad expression on its face, the energy ball growing larger and larger until it looked as though it could crush the channeler with its size alone.

"Forgive me, Nora..." Harmony said just before the Gardevoir flung the concentrated mass of energy at the misshapen woman. She kept her head low, unable to watch as the attack collided with the infected girl and knocked her to the ground with a most terrible shriek of pain.

"I never wanted for it to come to this..." Taen mumbled under his breath as he detached one of the balls from his legs and opened it, calling forth a muscular grey Pokemon with a belt and hair-like ridges on its head. "Machoke, pick up the half-Deoxys woman with Strength. Be as careful as you can; she's heavily pregnant," he commanded.

The Machoke nodded and strode over, hefting Nora with its arms. It cradled her like she was its bride, letting her legs and tentacles dangle uselessly. It marched on, with the people and the other Pokemon following behind it. "What will... Reukra think of this?" Harmony murmured, still trying to keep her gaze off of Nora.

"I... honestly do not know. Once he finds she's heavily pregnant, which is going to complicate things, Arceus knows how well he'd take the news. I've always known him as a calm man, but... this might be a bit much for him," Taen replied, then he released a heavy sigh. "Then again, he made the damned strain to begin with, and the Delta Pokemon..."

"Any idea why she went... like she acted as if someone else controlled her?" Harmony continued in a low tone, turning her gaze to Taen.

"I haven't the foggiest, but I believe the pregnancy could be a factor," the man replied, shaking his head. "And the gem glowed once she began twitching like a rabid Mightyena that's been fainted. Perhaps the strain gave her some psychic powers..." He gave a very faint shudder at the mere thought of it. "We'll have to carefully restrain her if that's the case."

"How are you going to do that?"

Taen remained silent as Harmony's recent question bounced about in his head a few times. After a few moments, he merely stated, "I'll think of something."


	2. Bright

Nora shifted, weakly groaning as she came to. Bright light assaulted her bleary vision, forcing her to close her eyes after she cracked their lids a sliver of the way open. She felt a kick in her stomach, no doubt the baby within her womb wriggling about. Her tentacles writhed for one moment before flopping the next, feeling soft fabrics all the while.

Wait, fabrics... 

The woman forced her eyes fully open and sat up, looking around hastily. As the fog cleared from her sight, she could make out dull blue walls, a pale tiled floor, a table and chair, a toilet, and bars of solid plasma blocking a spot where a door should've been.

Her heart plummeted. "W-where am I?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, tentacles shooting up in front of her prone form. Color drained from her face as a familiar blue-haired man stepped into view on the other side of the bars.

"You're at the relocated Perfection Base," Taen answered in a smooth voice. "Apologies for... caging you, but I have good reason for that."

Nora lowered her tentacles, bringing up her hand and shakily covering her breasts with it. She forced her arm back down once they touched the skin, as a searing ache erupted from her chest. "The..."

"Yes, the strain," Taen finished for her. "I wish it hadn't come to this, but with Malde and... him still loose, Reukra has insisted that a plethora of extra precautions be taken. If you've any complaints, I can bring him over to lend a listening ear."

Nora's gaze fell to where she lay, and she quickly found that someone had the courtesy to give her a bed to rest on. She turned her attention back to Taen and asked, "What if... what if he breaks in?"

"Rest assured, that has been taken into account. And I've informed Reukra of your..." Taen paused, looking pointedly at Nora's engorged stomach, "unforeseen _package,_ shall we say."

The misshapen woman's eyes lit up. "Are you going to abort it? Or... at least, keep it away from me?" she inquired.

Taen assumed a serious, though thoughtful, look on his face. "While you were out, I've had an Audino perform an ultrasound with the required technology..." he paused again, reaching towards something outside of the small plasma-blocked door and producing a stack of papers stapled together. He threw the stack through the bars and watched as they twirled for a bit before flopping on the table.

Nora turned to the papers and made to stand, almost tripping over the stubs that formed the ends of her legs. "Stupid lack of toes, I want my feet back..." she grumbled, shuffling over to the table while using her tentacles for balance. She snatched the papers and flipped through them, and each time her pupils dilated a little bit. The papers had black pictures, highlighted by stark green outlines that vaguely looked like an-almost-fully-grown child with its own set of tentacles for arms.

"Unfortunately, you're too far along in the pregnancy to have a successful abortion," Taen finished. "In fact, I doubt a back-alley treatment would do much, given that the... ahem, package has also caught the strain."

Nora dropped the papers, and soon after fell on her oddly-colored knees. "So that means..." she mumbled, her form starting to shake. She stood up and rushed towards the plasma bars with her hand outstretched. The man backed away as the woman grabbed the bars with her appendages, shrieking as the bars sent volt after volt coursing through her body in response.

"Arceus dammit," Taen cursed, reaching for one of the balls on his pants pockets and opening it, causing a Pokemon that looked like a mass of darkness with a red necklace and long silvery mist to form from a red aura. "Darkrai, use Dark Void!" he commanded, and instantly Darkrai obeyed. It stared into Nora's eyes with its own pair, glowing bright blue before a dark crimson blob shot out and hit the woman square in the face.

Nora was sent flying into the wall opposite of the bars, colliding with the floor in the moment that followed. Her form sprawled on the tiles, back arched slightly as her swollen stomach held up her spine like a balloon.

"Taen, what's the status of Nora?" the voice of a man asked. Taen snapped his head to one side, finding a hall and a man in a black trenchcoat and hat approaching him.

"I showed her the results of the ultrasound, and she grabbed the plasma bars after. I had no choice but to put her to sleep," Taen answered in an unsteady voice as he straightened his posture. "Reukra, I genuinely fear for her at this rate."

Reukra strode to the bars and peered between them, staring straight ahead at Nora's unconscious form. "Perhaps the strain has granted her more than just a few mutations. Tell me, Taen, is she aggressive?" he asked, turning to the other man with a brow raised.

"Unfortunately, she seems to be that way," Taen replied. When Reukra gave him an expectant look, he elaborated, "When me and Harmony found her, she tried to not attack us, yet still lashed out. She had to be knocked out."

Reukra nodded and shot the out-cold Nora another look before turning back to Taen and addressing him, "I have a hunch as to why she's violent. Taen, we might need to add more precautions to the book, if this hunch of mine proves to be true."

"That hunch being?" Taen asked, blinking as the Darkrai moved to stand at his side.

"Motherly instincts. Hormones acting in tandem with the strain, trying to protect the unborn," the man in the trenchcoat answered simply. "As well as... fear, from what little I know of her before she got tangled in this mess."

"You mean... she's afraid that Damian will..." Taen's question went unfinished as, again, Reukra nodded.

"I don't blame her for thinking Damian will find her and attempt to do something else. But what I do not understand is _why_ he went down that dark route," Reukra said, his face hardening as he continued to stare at Taen. "Increase security measures, and get her some food. She musn't starve, and needs to feel as safe as we are able to make it."

"Right away, sir," Taen nodded, and he quickly sprinted down the hall, only to stop mid-run when the man in the coat cleared his throat.

"You're forgetting something," Reukra piped up as Taen turned to him, a thumb pointing at the Darkrai.

"Oh. Right. Darkrai, return," Taen called, opening the ball as Darkrai turned into red energy and flew to it, forming a sphere within as the orb latched shut.

Reukra watched as Taen vanished after turning down a corner, and he directed his attention to the misshapen woman behind the plasma bars. "What have I done...?" he asked to none in particular, his voice low and somber. He shook his head and chastised himself, "Then again, I couldn't have foreseen that this would happen when I made the strain... I must do everything I can."

Nora groaned and began shifting again, standing up and glancing around dazedly. She stumbled and slumped against the wall, sliding down it into a sitting position. Her breathing was ragged, turning into sharp and pained gasps as the gem on her chest began radiating a dull violet light.

Then she started to violently flail about, randomly lashing out with her tentacles at everything but the plasma bars that kept her locked in—and separated from an observing Reukra. The man watched as her fit escalated, to the point a soft blue light radiated from her eyes and embraced the table and chair, throwing them about as if they were extensions of her own body.

It worsened from there, and it escalated quick—another blue light started glowing from her stomach, getting brighter and brighter, drawing out a strangled shriek from Nora. Once she fidgeted for another few moments or so, the light from her eyes and gem faded, causing the table to drop behind the bars and the chair to land squarely on her stomach.

The light from her gut burned even brighter, and Reukra's eyes narrowed as he found a silhouette in that light kicking and squirming vehemently, only stopping when the woman had burnt too much energy to continue screaming and thrashing. The light died down as Nora's head dropped and her form ceased any violent movements, instead giving soft shudders and twitches here and there which were barely noticeable.

"So that's why you've been hiding... it's not you in control of those fits, isn't it?" Reukra asked, as though Nora could articulate an answer. He gazed at her stomach, ignoring the chair still on it. "Looks like me and Taen will have to deal with you as soon as we can, little one..."

A soft light glowed from the swollen stomach again, but only for a moment.

"Shhh, you're in good hands," Reukra stated in a calm, almost fatherly tone of voice just as the light faded. He walked away from the bars and strode down the hall, turning down the corner Taen had vanished into moments ago. He strode quickly, turning down some more halls, his face set with an unreadable look.

A sound entered his mind, causing him to halt in his tracks. It sounded like it echoed into his ears from all directions, yet the source remained invisible—it sounded like a baby crying. Reukra silently swore to himself and rushed back down the halls he had come from, hearing that accursed sound the whole while. As he went, he started muttering to himself in a near-silent tone riddled with sarcasm, "This day just keeps on getting better..."

He reached the plasma bars that held Nora at bay, only to find that somehow, Taen had beaten him to them. With him was a Chansey, who strode into the room through the bars, as if they weren't really there. "You heard it too, didn't you?" Taen asked, turning to Reukra as the Chansey shoved the table aside and made a beeline for Nora.

"A baby crying? Yes I did," Reukra answered, turning to Taen with a serious look on his face. He slung his hands on Taen's shoulders and added, "It's worse than we both assumed. The child... it has enough power to make its surrogate cocoon glow."

The blue-haired man's eyes widened. "It _what?_ " he asked.

"It glows in the womb. In fact, it might be the very catalyst to Nora's violent tendencies. I've seen it first hand," Reukra replied, his voice dropping. "For all we know, it might've even contacted us through telepathy—considering I heard it crying out..."

Taen's jaw dropped, but only for a moment. He turned to the Chansey and snapped, "Chansey, Heal Pulse! Do it now!" The Chansey turned to him and nodded, shoving off the chair before a series of glowing rings radiated from it, coming into contact with the misshapen woman and healing whatever wounds she could have accrued from her recent bout of struggling.

As the waves of energy washed over Nora, the sound of a baby crying quickly died down. A giggle followed it soon after, and both men relaxed as the Chansey hefted Nora with ease and laid her on the bed.

"Lovely, now we're babysitting in utero," Taen growled, turning to Reukra with a glower. "No wonder Nora wants nothing to do with the—" he stopped as another cry echoed into his and the other man's heads, as well as Reukra moving a hand to hover over his mouth to silence him.

"Shhhh, it's alright," the man in the coat said, turning to the woman on the bed. Immediately, the crying had ceased again. "Uncle Taen's just cranky," he added, earning a giggle that echoed into their skulls. He turned back to the man he silenced and removed his hand before continuing, "It seems the little one's taken a liking to us... except when we're cranky. Taen, I advise you keep your temper in check, for everyone's sake."

Taen's glower faded, and he simply nodded in understanding. "But... why would the... why would it like us? We're the ones who started this entire mess," he said, tone riddled with confusion that glinted in his eyes.

"That, I know not. Now, about those extra precautions..." Reukra began with a sigh.


	3. Birth

Nora began to feel pangs of sharp, stabbing pain from her stomach as she slowly came to—of hunger or her unborn child, she wasn't certain, nor did she care enough to discern the source. Her eyes stayed closed, her form unmoving save for her chest as she drew shuddering breaths. Much of her body was stiff, with all four limbs refusing to move when she willed them to do so, sending jolts through her system as though she'd been paralyzed from the shoulders down. The air around her was oddly silent, and her world was dark, which left her to her own thoughts.

Her head began hurting every single time she tried to think of something—whether it be eating or exhuming the baby from her system to frollicking in sunlit meadows, absolutely everything made her mind spin and her cranium pound with the force of a dozen sledgehammers. So, she resolved to not think at all—but even as her mind went blank, her head still ached.

"No refuge…" she murmured weakly, her own utterance ringing in her ears and only serving to garner a wince as it amplified the mother of all headaches. Her fingers twitched, and they sent another bolt of lightning through her nerves in protest, and so stilled when the first opportunity arose seconds later.

Then, the sound of a baby giggling clouded her thoughts, making her sharply gasp as her head pounded worse in response. "Stop," she groaned, yet the giggling persisted for a full minute longer before things once more fell into tranquility. The pangs in her stomach began anew again, and a feeling of wetness between the legs settled in, but Nora didn't care in the slightest. How could she? She was stuck in darkness, her own body basically told her to fuck off at the slightest twitch, and her cranium continually throbbed madly no matter what she did.

Her tentacles shifted slightly, although they sent another bolt through her system. She heard a voice, low and distant, speak up. "Taen… is it in a cryo-stasis tube?" it asked.

"Yes… over there," another voice answered, though whatever words came after that simply faded into the darkened void that Nora was stranded in.

Then the words 'cryo-stasis tube' registered into her pain-fogged mind a little late. Nora's eyes finally snapped open and she sat up suddenly, vision blurred and body aching all over. "Wh-wha—"

"Machoke, hold her to the gurney!" a man barked, and a pair of bluish and sturdy hands grappled Nora by the shoulders and sharply tugged her back, forcing her to lay back down as abruptly as she got up.

"Wh-what's happening?!" Nora shrieked, her vision clearing as a blue-and-white blob swam into view. She found herself looking Taen dead in the eyes, and he held up a hand with his palm facing her—a sign to cease and desist. She stiffened, and only then did she receive an answer.

"You gave birth while you were asleep," Taen explained in a soft voice. "You need to rest."

Nora's eyes narrowed, and she glared balefully at the man. "I heard something about a tube of… some kind," she hissed.

Taen flinched, pulling his hand back only to thereafter regain his composure. "Yes, about that…" The lad turned to something behind her and nodded in that direction. The hands gripping Nora slowly let go of her shoulders, and she hesitantly sat up to take in her surroundings. She was laying on a blood-stained gurney for starters, but it looked out of place in the rest of the room. 

Wires, thick and grey, lay askew all around the floor, seemingly leading everywhere at once. The bits of floor she could see were dark blue and tiled, and the walls were of a similar color with a bit of reflective tint that enabled her to see the Machoke standing behind her without having to actually turn her head to it. Gargantuan tubes were lined along one wall, and Reukra was standing next to one of them that was filled with a translucent liquid and something else which made Nora's heart skip a beat.

A newborn baby, umbilical still attached, was floating in that liquid. It was sickeningly pale white on its head and chest, but its arms were nothing more than tentacles and its legs exactly like that of its mother's—though its oddly-pointed knee caps were green instead of blue, and it had a few distinct toes instead of a mere lack of feet altogether. The legs were yellow, and so were two of the tentacles; the other two were sickly green as well. It had a gem on its chest, but even that was pale—a lilac that appeared to be white in the liquid. It didn't move at all, eyes closed with some white substance that made Nora think it came out with glue on its tiny visage.

"We… aren't sure if it's stillborn or not," Taen stated, his utterance causing Nora to turn to him with widened eyes. "We heard giggling earlier, but…"

"Since you passed the strain unto it, though through not of your own volition," Reukra interjected, causing Nora to glance at him, "it may have not died, per se."

"What do you mean 'per se?'" Nora asked hesitantly, her voice low.

"It might… or might not become a Deoxys in full. Or it could go the other way and become fully human. It's still too early to tell at this time," Reukra answered, turning to the baby in the tube and frowning solemnly. "What I certainly find odd is… that it doesn't have a normal Deoxys's coloration, if you will."

"And the fact that it was sickly pale upon entering the world… Nora, tell me something, and be honest." Nora turned to Taen again as he shuffled a bit and cleared his throat. "Did you eat anything during your pregnancy?" When he got a shake of the head as his answer, he sighed and wrinkled his nose a bit. "And why not?" he asked, in a little more snappish way than he'd have liked.

"I couldn't… process food. I'd throw it back up," Nora replied, turning away to stare blankly at the nearest barren wall.

"Hrmm?" Taen's brow rose high.

"Get the damned Chansey. I'll show you what I'm talking about," Nora replied, keeping her gaze on the wall.

"No," Reukra interjected. When Nora turned to him, he stated, "If you can't process food, then you do not want to be any more ill than you already are. You need to get better, not _worse,_ for Arceus's sake."

Nora threw her arm and tentacles into the air, barely missing Taen by an inch as she then flailed them around in exasperation. "You say that like my state of mind already didn't go fucking south to begin with!" she cursed, causing both men and the Machoke to stare at her with widening eyes.

"Great, we've got a crazy on our hands," Taen mouthed to Reukra, before he turned to the Machoke and nodded again. Nora stopped upon feeling the Machoke grab her by the shoulder, and she turned to it with eyes narrowed.

"The fuck do you want?" she balefully spat. The Machoke just continued to stare at her, one brow slowly going up as the seconds ticked by.

"Should I put her to sleep again?" Taen mouthed to Reukra, a light of desperation sparking in his irises.

"Wait. She may calm down soon," Reukra mouthed back with a nod. "If she doesn't, then you can give her another Dark Void, full force."

Taen nodded in understanding, and he turned to Nora once more. "Could you… not take your anger out on Machoke, please?" he tried, only to momentarily shudder when she cast her baleful glare onto him. "What, exactly, did I—"

"You know fucking well what you did, you blue-haired bastard!" Nora shrieked, one eye twitching as her gem began to glow.

"Me and Reukra could still make all of our transgressions up to you," Taen retorted, instantly causing Nora to stiffen.

After a few tense seconds, Nora asked in a low voice, "... how?"

"Aside from making an antidote for your strain and feeding you…" Taen paused when he realized that Nora still stared straight into his eyes, as though her gaze alone could bore into his mind and exhume anything else before he so much as uttered one syllable of it. When her brow rose, he continued in a more subdued tone, "... perhaps… sharing your pain."

"Sharing my…" Nora blinked, and then she lifted her other brow as her eyes widened disbelievingly. "How the fuck are you going to do that, hrrm?"

Taen swallowed heavily, sweat starting to bead upon his brow. "Perhaps… I could infect myself?" he replied.

Reukra snapped, "Don't! You'll… you'll end up making Malde's mistake!"

"I could still cure myself once an antidote's been made!" Taen snapped back, and at this Reukra flinched and fell silent. "Besides, Nora could use some contact during any interactions that doesn't come from a Pokemon in order to better cope and heal from this ordeal, and if and when I get infected anyway, what if I reigned myself in so as to not infect anyone else thereafter?"

For a long moment, Reukra didn't answer as he considered Taen's rebuttal. Nora turned to him, using a tentacle to gesture to Taen with a wide-eyed look on her face that all but screamed, _"Did he just go mad, or am I hallucinating?"_

"... very well then, Taen. But I would advise you to be careful, and keep Nora in your sights at all times, if you do decide to go through with the infection," Reukra spoke at last, punctuating his response with a curt nod. He turned to Nora and added, "Is… that alright with you?"

Nora's tentacle dropped, falling slack on the gurney. Her mouth dried out, and her mind scrambled to formulate a response.

But each and every single attempt to think up, or say anything to break the silence that had followed, came up short.


	4. Four Lights

Taen moved Nora into her little holding cell, with the aid of his Machoke. As soon as she was stowed away from her baby-in-a-tube, he turned and made to leave when an utterance halted him before he even managed to take one step away from those plasma bars. "Wait."

He turned to Nora, a brow raised. "Yes?" he asked.

"Did you… really mean what you said? About catching the strain yourself, just to be in my shoes?" Nora asked in a serious tone, with her eyes only slightly narrowing.

"Well… it… it sort of…" Taen's mouth dried out as he spoke, and he felt a rising urge to let his Machoke slap him right across the face for suggesting something so drastic so carelessly. He decided against it, as the Pokemon's sheer bulk meant that his head would likely go clean off his shoulders if he even uttered such a command.

His next best option was to face the music. "Yes, but it… slipped before I could engage my cerebrum," he answered after a tense few seconds of silence.

Nora continued to stare. She flinched when Taen raised a hand and fiddled with something on the other side before the bars separating them vanished, and she shrunk when he waltzed right in. The bars reappeared the moment he was inside, and he assumed a serious look on his face. "Feel free to slap me for uttering something utterly insane without first considering the whole catalog of its implications," he stated.

Nora merely shifted her thighs closed, and her tentacles shifted to cover her chest. Fear danced in her eyes, and shudders wracked her body at the notion. "J-just so you can h-hit me again?!" she yelled, her voice distorting and becoming shrill. "I-I'd rather hang myself with an adamantium chain!"

Taen did not flinch in the slightest. He did not even blink. His brain, however, was in a fritz as he thought of ways to diffuse the situation before it could even begin to escalate. "I won't hit you, or have someone else do so in my stead. I swear on my life," he stated calmly, hoping to appease the madwoman before another one of her psychotic fits could start.

Unfortunately, her tentacles began writhing and twisting into knots, and her gem began to glimmer brilliantly. An icy glow emanated from her eyes, which narrowed dangerously low. "Really?" she hissed.

"Even if you strike me, I will not fight back," Taen answered with a nod as sure as his words. "If anything, I deserve some measure of retribution for what me and Reukra have wrought."

Nora stilled, though her eyes and gem were still aglow with unholy lights. She seemed to have been… staring into the depths of his soul for some time, before finally her tentacles dropped and the glowing ceased. Then, her eyes closed and she flopped on the bed, turning onto her side with an irritated grumble. "Have you considered… how _he_ felt?" he asked.

Nora shook her head. "He wasn't himself," was her terse reply. "He… died that day. In his place is… something else. Something that..." She didn't finish. She didn't _need_ to.

Taen found himself struck speechless again, though only for a few seconds. "What about your baby?" he asked in a low voice.

"... do whatever. I don't care anymore," Nora replied in a _flat_ voice. "At the rate I'm going… won't be much longer anyway."

Taen's eyes widened. Nora had the gall to _insinuate_ that she didn't care anymore? He turned around, facing the bars. Part of him felt compelled to stay, but… part of him wanted to leave Nora to her fate.

His stomach twisted into a knot. He needed to get Reukra, and soon.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Deep into a cavern, dark and constantly dripping with echoing water, two forms trudged through with a sluggish pace. One had used some sort of blue aura to levitate an oil wick lantern, revealing a hedgehog-looking Pokemon with green grass for quills and a flower on its little white head. The Pokemon sniffed frantically, occasionally stopping to look at the other form who accompanied it. The other form was bipedal, only resembling a human in stature; almost everything about him was utterly warped. He could hardly be called _human_ if one were to take a very long look at his features. 

His posture was even less human, slightly hunched with a wavering gait. His body below the waist warped to the point he seemed to be a living, breathing, walking patchwork, and his torso fared no better either. He possessed feet attached to legs that were a patchwork of peach-colored flesh clashing with blue knees sporting spikes and blood red patches seemingly festering like wounds. A dirty blond mop of hair rested on the head of the figure, a head that was distorted enough to sport red horn-like protrusions. His was a pale face whose eyes were alight with an unnatural blue glow. 

Between the eyes, also alight, was a single sliver of purple running along the bridge of his nose. What few clothes he had were torn; barely enough to cover his assets and much less so for his mutations, further compounded by a slender frame with countable ribs and jutting hips—the sort of frame only a starving person on the brink of death could hope to achieve. The only thing that wasn't torn was a bright red scarf stationed on his neck; he may as well have been walking around naked.

"Do you think she went through here, Shaymin?" the bipedal form asked, taking a moment to look down at his companion. He shuddered as he saw a purple gem protruding from his chest, enclosed in some black patch of skin that was half-peach, half-red. Twin, needle-like tentacles rested at his side above Shaymin, who look up and tilted its head. 

It chirped once, and the biped sighed. "Shay…" it said, in a depressed tone.

"I know. I shouldn't go near Malde ever again…" the biped agreed with a nod. "Six years ago was once enough. Never again…"

With that, they kept walking, brows furrowing as the lantern's flame dimmed, only further shrouding the caverns in a darkness whose shadows writhed and twisted with each step they took. "Keep sniffing, Shaymin. We _have_ to find her, before Malde does…" he hissed with a bit of urgency in his voice, to which Shaymin nodded and started sniffing the very stale, damp air around them with a renewed fervor.

At first, Shaymin merely kept sniffing the air. It sneezed once or twice, but its companion figured that didn't really count as a reaction on its part and simply kept going. Then, Shaymin veered sharply to the left, nose twitching with urgency. The biped followed, fast enough to keep up but slow enough to avoid stepping on the Pokemon.

Then the biped began to fret and fidget, his own tentacles twisting into knots as he began blabbering a mile a minute. "Reukra and Taen are still loose… what if they found her? O-or Jaern? Wh-what about Persephone…? What if she went to another region?" He started to hit himself with a hand attached to an arm that, fortunately, didn't mutate into more tendrils. "Arceus-damnit, Damian, you utter _fool..._ " And that was just the start of the worries that cascaded hopelessly out of his lips.

Shaymin stopped, turned around, and scrunched its back for a bit before a sweet scent began to fill the air. Damian paused mid-ramble, taking just one whiff of an aromatic, flowery smell. He instantly relaxed… though only a little. "Shay?"

Damian turned to Shaymin and closed his eyes, shifting his hand to rub at his temples. "Shaymin… you _do_ understand why I'm… disconcerted, right?" he asked.

"Shay," Shaymin replied with a nod.

Damian turned away, a small frown forming on his face. Without warning, he began to grit his teeth before his tentacles writhed, reconfigured, _transmogrified_ into an arm with a tightly-enclosed fist. His knees bent, his back hunched slightly, and his head dropped. The fist then sailed through the air, stretching to full mast before slamming into the nearest wall with such inhumane amounts of strength a small crater formed, causing the cavern to tremble a little. Shaymin jumped, eyes widening as Damian merely stood there, his fist embedded firmly in the wall, his mutated arm trembling as though in restraint.

Then, just as suddenly as he'd moved, Damian was mostly still. His breathing started to come in short-lived, wheezing pants that started low and slow before speeding up. His chest shook, and his teeth started to grind. Slowly, he pulled his fist away from the wall, wincing a little as pain settled into his malformed knuckles. He turned to Shaymin and opened his eyes, which now lost their glow to reveal a worn, weathered, exhausted set of dull grey irises. Slowly, the lantern descended to the ground, and when it landed it fell on its side to roll away, taking its scant light with it into depths unknown.

"Have you caught scent of Nora?" Damian asked. Shaymin shook its head. Damian looked up, some vestige of emotion glittering in his dulled eyes. "I see… but who wouldn't run from me, when…" He couldn't bring himself to finish his own utterance; his fist tightened to the point the fingertips started digging into his palm, his nails tearing a little into flesh that was his, yet felt… _wrong._

"I wouldn't be surprised if she hates me…" Damian murmured, his voice laced with next to no emotion. "I'd give up my immortality… just to see her safe…"

"Shay…" Shaymin frowned, tilting its head.

Damian painstakingly unclenched his fist, feeling rivulets of a warm liquid trickle down his palm. "Please, Arceus, let Nora be safe… wherever she may be…" Mutant and Pokemon resumed walking in silence, with one sniffing the air, and the other staring vacantly ahead into the darkness.

For a while they walked, changing direction seemingly at random, yet without a light to guide them they didn't have any way to discern which way was which. For how long they plodded on, they did not know; time was utterly lost to them in this sable. The walls came hither and tither, passing them as they damn well pleased, yet on and on they went.

Damian eventually started rambling a mile a minute again, fed up with the lack of direction and any noticeable change in the caverns. "How will the Perfection Cult react if they found her? Would they use her as Malde used me? Has she been reunited with Celebi?" Shaymin sighed, almost swearing it could _hear_ Damian biting his nails as he kept going. Now that the rambling train had restarted, the poor mutated sod couldn't stop. "What if… what if she got cured, but… died…"

Little Shaymin's frown deepened when Damian uttered the words, "I-if she d-died, then… I-I couldn't… fathom… what if I'm about to…" His voice cracked with each word, until it turned into incomprehensible blubbering. Shaymin stopped again, and turned around as it heard Damian collapse onto the floor. It wasn't with care either; he fell to the floor with a thud, wincing as his gem began to burn brightly. "Wh-what is…?!"

"Shay…" Shaymin watched as Damian began to convulse, an unholy purple light radiating from his chest, building to illuminate his features. He was curled up, limbs twitching, eyes widening and mouth agape in pain.

"Shay… min, p-please…" Damian pleaded, rapidly spreading his arms and legs as far as they could go. His eyes began to glow again, though red instead of blue. "H-he's trying…" Shaymin didn't need to be told twice; it started to glow with a bright green light rivaling that of Damian's. Seeds shot out from its grassy backside and spread all over, and anything and everything they came into contact with caused them to explode vehemently, Damian himself included.

The last sound Damian made as he fell into unconsciousness was an unholy scream. He failed to notice the sound of footsteps approaching him, his own cry and the explosions Shaymin created all but drowning it out.


	5. Reverberations

A siren began to blare throughout the Perfection Base with a shudder that passed throughout the building, its loud drone making Taen's heart freeze in place and also giving Nora cause to sit back up again. "Wh-what's going on?" Nora asked, eyes aglow and wide in alarm.

Taen shivered and turned back to face Nora. "We… installed that in case an intruder… decided to come anywhere _near_ the base," he replied. When Nora made to stand, Taen shook his head. "Don't worry; the base is well-concealed. The alarm blared when I brought you here. It's probably just some trainers having a battle."

Nora did not relax in the slightest. If anything, her whole body tensed, and her tentacles bristled. "H-how do you know f-for certain?" she hissed.

Taen flinched, having been caught blindsided. He opened his mouth to speak, when the sound of running footsteps managed to pierce the siren's wailing before skidding to a stop, followed up with a short-lived hum. "Taen, could you investigate what caused the siren to start its alarm?" a man groused. Taen turned around to find himself face-to-face with Reukra, without the plasma bars separating them.

Taen nodded, mouth still open to ask something when another sound cut through the minds of all present—a baby's wail. "Ah, great. Could you calm the little one down while I investigate whatever set the alarm off?" Taen asked, frowning as the dual wailings began to make his head hurt a little.

Reukra nodded. "Yes, but… I'll need to borrow Nora for a couple of minutes," he stated, loud enough that Nora could actually hear him.

Speaking of, Nora immediately shook her head. "No, nuh-uh." She started waving her arm and tentacles before her, glowering once more. "You can't make me," she hissed, her voice distorting. Taen took the opportunity to dart past Reukra in a harried sprint, unknowing of how Nora would behave around Reukra, much less keen on sticking around to find out. He raced down hallways, rounding corners sharply on his heels, resisting the urge to fumble with the balls on his legs until they'd be needed. Doors passed, tubes blurred by, switches and wires didn't even cross his path in his maddened sprint.

He didn't know how much time passed, nor how many halls he had to run through to get to one that ended with a rather suspect-looking glass-door lift instead of another bend. He spotted a small panel sitting next to the lift, and ran up to it before pressing keys seemingly at random. It only took a few presses of some buttons before the door to the lift opened up.

A voice droned out from the device, mechanical and flat, devoid of any definitive accent and pitch, _"Elevation approved. Please board now."_ Taen quickly boarded the lift, and no sooner than he did the lift closed. The entirety of the base trembled again, this time with several successive tremors coming and going as they damn well pleased.

The sirens only blared louder than before. Another voice droned through the building, piercing the veil of the constant mechanized wailing with a clarity that only sent more chills running down Taen's spine, _"Multiple explosions detected south of the base. Initiating complete lockdown of base. All personnel and patients are advised to seek shelter."_ The lift shook before it sluggishly ascended, jittering in a slightly nauseating manner as more tremors shook the building.

Taen leaned into the door, watching the opposite wall. At first, lights adorned it, revealing some soot-grey structure to which they'd been attached. With each passing shake of the earth, however, some of the lights flickered dangerously until the ascending mechanism simply reached a point where the lights did not work at all. The further the lift went up, though, the more an eerie silence settled in, with only the whirring of the machine itself daring to penetrate the darkening fog.

When the lift stopped roughly two minutes after he'd boarded it, he'd heard a door open close by, though certainly not behind him. Taen padded his way out of the lift, now noticing that at some point in his ride, the earth's fitful trembling had ceased. He waited for a few minutes in the gloom to see if anything else would happen, and when nothing answered him, he reached for one of the balls on his pants legs before pushing its button.

It snapped open and the energy that came out materialized into a small, equine shape. The light the energy gave only lasted for just long enough for Taen to see what it was. "Blitzle, use Flash," Taen commanded, and he had to squint his eyes as white stripes and a mane started to glow with a bright golden energy on the spot.

The Blitzle turned to him and cocked its head. "Blit?"

"Apologies, just need to gather my bearings for a moment," Taen replied, letting his eyes adjust to the glow. Blitzle nodded and turned ahead, its little ears perked up to attention. For a moment, Taen's heart began racing; if it was just a bunch of trainers having a battle as he initially suspected, then it was a pretty fierce one, judging by the ground-shaking reverbs that managed to set the base's alarm systems off.

But, if it _wasn't_ a bunch of over-enthusiastic trainers having a battle, that begged the question… _what_ had caused the fitful shaking? Taen heaved out a very long, very slow breath of air, causing his mental gears to start grinding as possible explanations started forming in his mind. Mechanical malfunction? A wild Pokemon undergoing a rampage? Natural earthquake that came and went?

A growing, clawing feeling of dread settled into Taen's still-twisting stomach. _"You don't want to know the answer,"_ a small part of his mind stated with a venomous callousness to it. _"You will only worsen things if you do acquire the knowledge of what had just transpired above the base."_

Taen shook his head to silence that little niggling voice that took up residence in the back of his head, turning to his Blitzle again. "Have you found anything yet?" he asked. The Blitzle's ears twitched, then it looked up at him and nodded before turning ahead and darting off in a gallop. Taen broke out into a sprint after it, wondering just what in Arceus's name was going on now.

Something was amiss, of that he was certain as he raced down winding stone corridors, up and down twisting trails, weaving left and right in his mad dash with Blitzle leading the way. His heart began beating faster, pumping oxygen through his veins, and within a matter of fifteen minutes Taen was panting with exertion, silently wondering about where he was being lead to.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Reukra stood in a small control room, laden with monitoring screens displaying a myriad of rooms with tiled floors and a keyboard sporting a dozens upon dozens of buttons and levers only he and Taen could hope to navigate and decipher. Nora was with him, arm and tentacles restrained by the Machoke Taen left behind. She was struggling, but her lithe, starved frame was no match for pure muscle, especially since she'd recently given birth. "L-lemme go!" she cried to no avail. The Machoke merely shook its head.

Reukra shook his head too. He gestured to the various monitors. "Since Taen's out investigating whatever flipped the siren off, I need you to fill in as my extra pair of eyes. Sincere apologies," he stated calmly. "That… and to keep you from causing any unnecessary damage."

Nora stopped struggling just long enough to look at Reukra incredulously. "Then why not just fit my cell with the setup you've got here?!" she asked, her tone flippant.

"For one thing, there wouldn't be room for basic furniture and necessities. And for another… if you had another fit, you'd end up destroying the equipment," Reukra retorted bluntly. "When you lose yourself, you toss things around. Isn't that what you try to avoid doing?"

For a long moment, Nora stayed still and silent, her eyes darting to the monitors in tandem with Reukra's as she weighed his words and tried mentally formulating some kind of answer. But her voice failed her every time she even so much as cracked her mouth just slightly ajar. In silence the two watched the monitors intently, waiting for something to pass beneath the cameras projecting them, when one of the screens abruptly changed.

Both sets of eyes widened when the screen shifted from a hall to display a green-tinted, very darkened cavernous area, circular in diameter, with two forms in the middle of the room. One lay face-down, the other at the first's side nuzzling him intently. The screen brightened as Taen skid into the room with his Blitzle, and for a moment time outright froze. Nora's heart sank in despair as she saw mutated knees, the horn-like protrusions, that _scarf…_

"N-no…" she squeaked, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as shivers wracked her body. "I-it c-can't…"

Reukra's eyes narrowed. He turned to Nora and leveled a stare at her, being courteous enough to ignore her naked, battered body. "Listen to me." Nora turned to him and shakily nodded, swallowing heavily. "We will not let him go near you, and vice-versa. He will be kept in a different individual cell, away from yours. If need be…" He turned to the cameras to find another Pokemon entering the scene via emerging from one of Taen's balls, this one another Gardevoir. Then, he turned back to Nora and finished, "we will have Shaymin keep him in line. Understood?"

When Nora nodded again, Reukra added, "We would not be callous enough to put you both in one cell together, especially with what Orion told us. We do not want that to happen again."

Nora swallowed again. "S-speaking of O-Orion…"

Reukra rose a hand, palm facing out, and Nora's mouth clacked shut. "Undergoing intense therapeutic procedures to cope with what he saw, if that is what you are wondering," he stated. "He's… he hasn't coped well."

Nora looked away, her gaze trailing to the floor. "I… I guess it's my fault he saw that…"

Reukra bristled at the notion, but collected himself and lowered his voice, his tone softening as he said, "Don't assume it is your fault he bore witness to such a tragedy. If anything, circumstance is to blame for that, as well as…" he trailed off, seeing no need to finish the statement. He took just one eensy step closer, in case Nora suddenly had a fit and broke free of Machoke's grasp. "Tell me at least one thing, though…"

Nora failed to look at Reukra, but her next utterance was more than enough to prompt him. "What?"

"Was… was Malde there, when… when you were infected?" Reukra asked slowly, enunciating each word so Nora would not have a chance to misconstrue his meaning. Haltingly at first, she nodded with a choked whimper.

"H-he watched… eyes g-glowing… w-was not in c-control of m-myself…" Nora muttered, her head dropping until her bangs overshadowed her eyes. Reukra's eyes narrowed a little at her mumbling, and his blood began to boil just a smidgen at what he'd just heard.

"Is that why… you hid?" Reukra queried, puzzlement and a drive for answers getting the better of him. Again, Nora hesitantly nodded.

"T-tried making me i-infect o-other people… b-broke free… r-ran," Nora clarified, her voice cracking and distorting.

Reukra's stomach began convulsing with a desire to transmogrify into a pretzel. "You need not say anymore," he muttered softly. "Get some rest. Eat and drink before you sleep, though… we will not let you waste away before we cure you of your affliction."

Nora shook her head. "Eggs… not enough…" she said tersely, her voice weak and strained. Her chest shook a little, and her gem pulsed in time with the twitching.

Reukra sighed, seeing Nora's point. He mentally made a note to self to enlighten Taen when he got back, though with what the camera in the cavern showed, he realized it may be a while yet before his go-to man even started making his return trip. "I'll prepare you a more hearty meal than just Chansey eggs. Would you like anything in particular?" he tried.

"D-do whatever. A-anything's g-good…" Nora murmured. "J-just… not a l-lot of it."


End file.
